Antiphon
Cf. Ps 17 (16):15
As for me, in justice I shall behold your face;
I shall be filled with the vision of your glory.
Collect
O God, who desired the Virgin Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
to flower among Native Americans
in a life of innocence,
grant, through her intercession,
that when all are gathered into your Church
from every nation, tribe and tongue,
they may magnify you
in a single canticle of praise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
Virgin
Reading
IS 7:1-9
In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah,
Rezin, king of Aram,
and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah,
went up to attack Jerusalem,
but they were not able to conquer it.
When word came to the house of David that Aram
was encamped in Ephraim,
the heart of the king and the heart of the people trembled,
as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.
Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz,
you and your son Shear-jashub,
at the end of the conduit of the upper pool,
on the highway of the fuller’s field, and say to him:
Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear;
let not your courage fail
before these two stumps of smoldering brands
the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans,
and of the son Remaliah,
because of the mischief that
Aram, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah,
plots against you, saying,
“Let us go up and tear Judah asunder, make it our own by force,
and appoint the son of Tabeel king there.”
Thus says the LORD:
This shall not stand, it shall not be!
Damascus is the capital of Aram,
and Rezin is the head of Damascus;
Samaria is the capital of Ephraim,
and Remaliah’s son the head of Samaria.
But within sixty years and five,
Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation.
Unless your faith is firm
you shall not be firm!
Responsorial Psalm
PS 48:2-3A, 3B-4, 5-6, 7-8
R. God upholds his city forever.
Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised
in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, fairest of heights,
is the joy of all the earth.
R. God upholds his city forever.
Mount Zion, “the recesses of the North,”
is the city of the great King.
God is with her castles;
renowned is he as a stronghold.
R. God upholds his city forever.
For lo! the kings assemble,
they come on together;
They also see, and at once are stunned,
terrified, routed.
R. God upholds his city forever.
Quaking seizes them there;
anguish, like a woman’s in labor,
As though a wind from the east
were shattering ships of Tarshish.
R. God upholds his city forever.
Alleluia
PS 95:8
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
MT 11:20-24
Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum:
Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the nether world.
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
July 14
Saint Kateri Tekawitha
(1656 - 1680)
The blood of martyrs is the seed of saints. Nine years after the Jesuits Isaac Jogues and Jean de Lelande were tomahawked by Iroquois warriors, a baby girl was born near the place of their martyrdom, Auriesville, New York.
Her mother was a Christian Algonquin, taken captive by the Iroquois and given as wife to the chief of the Mohawk clan, the boldest and fiercest of the Five Nations. When she was four, Tekakwitha lost her parents and little brother in a smallpox epidemic that left her disfigured and half blind. She was adopted by an uncle, who succeeded her father as chief. He hated the coming of the Blackrobes—Jesuit missionaries—but could do nothing to them because a peace treaty with the French required their presence in villages with Christian captives. She was moved by the words of three Blackrobes who lodged with her uncle, but fear of him kept her from seeking instruction. Tekakwitha refused to marry a Mohawk brave, and at 19 finally got the courage to take the step of converting. She was baptized with the name Kateri–Catherine–on Easter Sunday.
Now she would be treated as a slave. Because she would not work on Sunday, Kateri received no food that day. Her life in grace grew rapidly. She told a missionary that she often meditated on the great dignity of being baptized. She was powerfully moved by God’s love for human beings and saw the dignity of each of her people.
She was always in danger, for her conversion and holy life created great opposition.
On the advice of a priest, Kateri stole away one night and began a 200-mile walking journey to a Christian Indian village at Sault St. Louis, near Montreal.
For three years she grew in holiness under the direction of a priest and an older Iroquois woman, giving herself totally to God in long hours of prayer, in charity, and in strenuous penance. At 23, Kateri took a vow of virginity, an unprecedented act for an Indian woman whose future depended on being married. She found a place in the woods where she could pray an hour a day—and was accused of meeting a man there!
Her dedication to virginity was instinctive: Kateri did not know about religious life for women until she visited Montreal. Inspired by this, she and two friends wanted to start a community, but the local priest dissuaded her. She humbly accepted an “ordinary” life. She practiced extremely severe fasting as penance for the conversion of her nation. Kateri Tekakwitha died the afternoon before Holy Thursday. Witnesses said that her emaciated face changed color and became like that of a healthy child. The lines of suffering, even the pockmarks, disappeared and the touch of a smile came upon her lips.
She was beatified in 1980 and canonized in 2012.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will proclaim Your Praise!
Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 94 (95)
Come, let us adore the Lord,
for he is our God.
Come, let us rejoice in the Lord,
let us acclaim God our salvation.
Let us come before him proclaiming our thanks,
let us acclaim him with songs.
Come, let us adore the Lord,
for he is our God.
For the Lord is a great God,
a king above all gods.
For he holds the depths of the earth in his hands,
and the peaks of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his: he made it;
and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us adore the Lord,
for he is our God.
Come, let us worship and bow down,
bend the knee before the Lord who made us;
for he himself is our God and we are his flock,
the sheep that follow his hand.
Come, let us adore the Lord,
for he is our God.
If only, today, you would listen to his voice:
“Do not harden your hearts
as you did at Meribah,
on the day of Massah in the desert,
when your fathers tested me –
they put me to the test,
although they had seen my works.”
Come, let us adore the Lord,
for he is our God.
“For forty years they wearied me,
that generation.
I said: their hearts are wandering,
they do not know my paths.
I swore in my anger:
they will never enter my place of rest.”
Come, let us adore the Lord,
for he is our God.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Come, let us adore the Lord,
for he is our God.
Hymn
Eternal Father, through your Word
You gave new life to Adam’s race,
And call us now to live in light,
New creatures by your saving grace.
To you who stooped to all who sin
We render homage and give praise:
To Father, Son and Spirit blest
Whose loving gift is endless days.
Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal
Psalm 88 (89)
A lament at the ruin of the house of David
Pay heed, Lord, and see how we are taunted.
But you have spurned and rejected him;
you are enraged against your anointed.
You have repudiated the covenant of your servant,
you have trampled his crown in the dust.
You have demolished his walls
and laid his fortifications in ruins.
Anyone who passes can despoil him;
he is a mockery among his neighbors.
You have strengthened the arm of those who oppress him,
you have gladdened the hearts of his enemies.
You have turned back the sharp edge of his sword;
you have deprived him of your help in battle.
You have put an end to his splendor,
and cast his throne to the ground.
You have cut short the days of his youth;
you have covered him from head to foot in shame.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Pay heed, Lord, and see how we are taunted.
Psalm 88 (89)
I am the root and stock of David;
I am the splendid morning star.
How long, O Lord, will you hide yourself? Forever?
Will your anger always burn like fire?
Remember how short is my time.
Was it truly so pointless, your creation of man?
Who is the man who can live and not die,
who can save his life from the grasp of the underworld?
Where are the kindnesses you showed us of old?
Where is the truth of your oath to David?
Remember, Lord, how your servants are taunted,
the taunts I bear in my bosom, the taunts of the nations –
the insults of your enemies, Lord,
the insults that follow the steps of your anointed!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
I am the root and stock of David;
I am the splendid morning star.
Psalm 89 (90)
Let the Lord's glory shine upon us
Our years pass like grass;
but you, God, are without beginning or end.
Lord, you have been our refuge
from generation to generation.
Before the mountains were born,
before earth and heaven were conceived,
from all time to all time, you are God.
You turn men into dust,
you say to them “go back, children of men.”
A thousand years in your sight
are like yesterday, that has passed;
like a short watch in the night.
When you take them away, they will be nothing but a dream;
like the grass that sprouts in the morning:
in the morning it grows and flowers,
in the evening it withers and dries.
For we are made weak by your anger,
thrown into confusion by your wrath.
You have gazed upon our transgressions;
the light of your face illuminates our secrets.
All our days vanish in your anger,
we use up our years in a single breath.
Seventy years are what we have,
or eighty for the stronger ones;
and most of that is labour and sadness –
quickly they pass, and we are gone.
Who can comprehend the power of your wrath?
Who can behold the violence of your anger?
Teach us to reckon our days like this,
so that our hearts may be led at last to wisdom.
Turn to us, Lord, how long must we wait?
Let your servants call on you and be answered.
Fill us with your kindness in the morning,
and we shall rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.
Give us joy for as long as you afflicted us,
for all the years when we suffered.
Let your servants see your great works,
and let their children see your glory.
Let the glory of the Lord God be upon us:
make firm the work of your hands.
Make firm the work of your hands.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Our years pass like grass;
but you, God, are without beginning or end.
Lord, from you springs life;
– in your light we shall see light.
First Reading
1 Kings 22:1-9,15-23,29,34-38
There was a lull of three years, with no fighting between Aram and Israel. Then, in the third year, Jehoshaphat king of Judah paid a visit to the king of Israel. The king of Israel said to his officers, ‘You are aware that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us? And yet we do nothing to wrest it away from the king of Aram.’ He said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Will you come with me to fight at Ramoth-gilead?’ Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel,
‘I am as ready as you, my men as your men, my horses as your horses.’
Jehoshaphat, however, said to the king of Israel, ‘First, please consult the word of the Lord.’ So the king of Israel called the prophets together, about four hundred of them. ‘Should I march to attack Ramoth-gilead’ he asked ‘or should I refrain?’ ‘March,’ they replied ‘The Lord will deliver it into the power of the king.’ But Jehoshaphat said, ‘Is there no other prophet of the Lord here for us to consult?’ The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, ‘There is one more man through whom we can consult the Lord, but I hate him because he never has a favorable prophecy for me, only unfavorable ones; he is Micaiah son of Imlah.’ ‘The king should not say such things’ Jehoshaphat said. Accordingly the king of Israel summoned one of the eunuchs and said, ‘Bring Micaiah son of Imlah immediately.’
When he came to the king, the king said, ‘Micaiah, should we march to attack Ramoth-gilead, or should we refrain?’ He answered, ‘March and conquer. The Lord will deliver it into the power of the king.’ But the king said, ‘How often must I put you on oath to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?’
Then Micaiah spoke:
‘I have seen all Israel scattered on the mountains
like sheep without a shepherd.
And the Lord said, “These have no master,
let each go home unmolested.”’
At this the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Did I not tell you that he never gives me favorable prophecies, but only unfavorable ones?’ Micaiah went on, ‘Listen rather to the word of the Lord. I have seen the Lord seated on his throne; all the array of heaven stood in his presence, on his right and on his left. The Lord said, “Who will trick Ahab into marching to his death at Ramoth-gilead?” At which some answered one way, and some another. Then the spirit came forward and stood before the Lord. “I,” he said “I will trick him.” “How?” the Lord asked. He replied, “I will go and become a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.” “You shall trick him,” the Lord said “you shall succeed. Go and do it.” Now see how the Lord has put a lying spirit into the mouths of all your prophets here. But the Lord has pronounced disaster on you.’
Responsory
℟. Do not be deceived by the prophets among you.
They prophesy falsely to you in my name,
* for I alone know my purpose for you, says the Lord.
℣. I will raise up a prophet and I will put my words into his mouth,
* for I alone know my purpose for you, says the Lord.
Second Reading
From the treatise On the Mysteries
by Saint Ambrose, bishop
Instruction on the post-baptismal rites
After this, you went up to the priest. Consider what followed. Was it not what David spoke of when he said: Like oil on the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron? This is the oil spoken of also by Solomon: Your name is oil poured out, so that the maidens loved you and attracted you. How many souls, reborn today, have loved you, Lord Jesus, and have said: Draw us after you; we shall make haste to follow you, in the fragrance of your garments, to breathe the fragrance of resurrection.
Understand why this is done: Because the eyes of the wise man are in his head.
The oil flows down on the beard, that is, on the grace of youth;
it flows on Aaron’s beard,
in order to make you a chosen race, a race of priests, bought at a great price.
We are all anointed with spiritual grace to share in God’s kingdom and in priesthood.
Then you received white garments as a sign that you had cast off the clothing of sin and put on the chaste covering of innocence, as the psalmist prophesied: You will sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be cleansed, you will wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow. One who is baptized is seen to be made clean in terms of the law and of the Gospel. In terms of the law, because Moses used a bunch of hyssop to sprinkle the blood of the lamb; in terms of the Gospel, because Christ’s garments were white as snow when in the Gospel he revealed the glory of his resurrection. The sinner who is forgiven is made whiter than snow. The Lord promised the same through Isaiah:
If your sins are as scarlet, I will make them white as snow.
Wearing the garments given her in the rebirth by water, the Church says, in the words of the Song of Songs: I am black but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem. Black because of the frailty of humanity, beautiful through grace; black because she is made up of sinners, beautiful through the sacrament of faith. When they see these garments the daughters of Jerusalem cry out in wonder:
Who is this who comes up, all in white? She was black, how is she suddenly made white?
When Christ sees his Church clothed in white – for her sake he himself had put on filthy clothing, as you may read in the prophecy of Zechariah – when he sees the soul washed clean by the waters of rebirth, he cries out: How beautiful you are, my beloved,
how beautiful you are; your eyes are like the eyes of a dove,
for it was in the likeness of a dove that the Holy Spirit came down from heaven.
Remember, then, that you received a spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear. Keep safe what you received. God the Father sealed you, Christ the Lord strengthened you and sent the Spirit into your hearts as the pledge of what is to come,
as you learned in the reading from the Apostle.
Responsory
℟. You have believed the good news and have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit,
the pledge of our inheritance,
* which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own.
℣. God has anointed us,
giving us the pledge,
the Spirit which we carry in our hearts,
and marking us with his seal,
* which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own.
Let us pray.
God and Father,
to those who go astray
you reveal the light of your truth
and enable them to return to the right path.
Grant that all who have received the grace of baptism
may strive to be worthy of their Christian calling
and reject everything opposed to it.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
Let us praise the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.
